yutori is a rapidly growing company that operates over 30 apparel brands aimed at Generation Z. Founded in 2018, it achieved annual sales of 4.3 billion yen in less than six years, primarily through sales on its e-commerce site. In December 2023, it became the fastest company in the apparel industry to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market, and it is also advancing its physical store development and OMO (Online Merges with Offline) strategy.
From the early days of its establishment, the company has utilized Shopify as its e-commerce platform, upgrading its plan in line with the expansion of its business scale. Currently, its own e-commerce site, YZ STORE, operates on Shopify's top-tier plan, Shopify Plus, and has achieved the following results:
Results from Implementing Shopify Plus Plan:
- Sales growth rate: 170%
- 32% of members linked with LINE through CRM Plus on LINE
- Yearly reduction of approximately 700 address errors due to checkout customization
In this article, we spoke in detail with Shiori Hamada, the Marketing Producer at yutori, and Kenshiro Aoshima, the Supply Chain Producer, about how they are leveraging Shopify for their rapid growth.
yutori Marketing Producer Shiori Hamada (right), Supply Chain Producer Kenshiro Aoshima (left)
Dominating the Market in Six Years: The Key to Growth Lies in Their Own E-Commerce Site
yutori started from an Instagram account called "Vintage Girls," launched by founder Takayuki Kataishi. Initially, the company focused on selling vintage clothing online, capitalizing on the growing vintage community. However, with vintage clothing, even if there is demand, only one piece can be sold at a time. To overcome this inventory limitation, yutori shifted its strategy to selling original products with vintage-inspired designs.
Since then, through a unique marketing strategy leveraging social media, yutori has rapidly grown by accurately capturing the needs of young people. They have launched and acquired new brands, now operating over 30 brands. The background of this growth includes a unique brand management system developed while managing many brands.
One such system is the "Y League," which ranks and manages the growth phases of brands from the startup phase "Y5" to the established phase "Y1." By setting clear criteria, such as withdrawing from brands that cannot be promoted to "Y4" within a year of launch, yutori has achieved effective brand management.
At the core of yutori's growth is its own e-commerce site, "YZ STORE." This mall-type site centrally sells multiple brands operated by yutori and accounts for a significant portion of the company's sales.
"Previously, we operated separate e-commerce sites for each brand, but in 2022, we opened 'YZ STORE,' integrating all brands into one mall. This made it easier for newly launched Y5-ranked brands to attract customers and created an environment conducive to starting new businesses. Currently, we are averaging about 500,000 sessions per month, making it a crucial sales channel," says Hamada.
Upgrading with Business Expansion: Establishing a Scalable System with Shopify Plus Plan
Shortly after starting the business, yutori began using Shopify, emphasizing future scalability. Initially, they chose the Basic plan and gradually upgraded their plan in line with business growth, now using Shopify's top-tier plan, Shopify Plus.
Aoshima reflects, "Once our sales began to stabilize, we switched to the Shopify plan (formerly Standard Plan) and then to the Advanced Plan (formerly Premium Plan) as our scale increased. When integrating street brands into YZ STORE, we transitioned to the Shopify Plus plan to create an environment for further sales expansion."
The Shopify Plus plan enhances scalability, and its exclusive features and rich apps have become an essential foundation for yutori's growth. For example, the LINE integration app "CRM PLUS on LINE", exclusive to the Plus plan, enables single sign-on for LINE integration. This allows the linking of member IDs on the e-commerce site with LINE user IDs, facilitating the sending of messages such as new arrivals and restock notifications, thus supporting part of their CRM initiatives.
Additionally, the customizable checkout feature "Checkout Extensibility" of the Shopify Plus plan plays a crucial role in expanding sales. For yutori, which has many young customers who may be using e-commerce for the first time, the feature that supports accurate input of delivery addresses reduces order mistakes due to address errors and contributes to improved customer satisfaction. Aoshima explains, "By using the Checkout Extensibility feature, we added the Shopify Plus-exclusive app 'Smart Delivery Address Validation', allowing us to automatically check for address errors on the checkout screen. This has enabled us to provide a more convenient experience for buyers while reducing address errors and ensuring smooth delivery."
Results from Implementing Shopify Plus:
- Sales growth rate: 170%
- 32% of members linked with LINE through CRM Plus on LINE
- Yearly reduction of approximately 700 address errors due to checkout customization
In general, e-commerce businesses often face the need to switch platforms as they expand, but yutori has achieved rapid growth without encountering such challenges by leveraging Shopify's flexible scalability.
Aoshima states, "If we had been using another platform, we might have had to spend time dealing with various issues, such as relocating the platform according to business scale or scalability problems. However, with Shopify, we didn't have those worries; we only needed to change our plan as we scaled, allowing us to focus on how to scale our business. That is the great value of Shopify."
yutori Supply Chain Producer Kenshiro Aoshima
How to Achieve Rapid Growth Without Engineers or E-Commerce Staff by Utilizing Shopify
"yutori does not have any engineers in-house. With the cooperation of Shopify expert partners and by using Shopify and surrounding apps, we can quickly implement what we want to achieve, which significantly contributes to the growth of our brand. Moreover, we do not have dedicated e-commerce personnel, but 90% of our employees interact with Shopify," says Aoshima.
Even without e-commerce personnel, he evaluates, "Thanks to Shopify's intuitive operability, brand managers, creative members, and supply chain personnel can smoothly manage their respective roles."
Let's take a closer look at how they have achieved these results without engineers or dedicated e-commerce staff.
Shopify's Unique Payment Service Supporting Diverse Payment Methods
"Shopify Payments" is one of the features yutori utilizes to efficiently operate its online store. This system enables the diversification of payment methods, enhancing the user experience. Additionally, the "post-payment" option has gained support among younger customers, such as students, preventing the loss of purchasing opportunities. Particularly for popular products expected to sell out quickly, the post-payment option has supported customer purchasing motivation.
Hamada recalls, "When popular brands like '9090' were actively selling on a first-come, first-served basis, customers recommended registering for the one-click payment feature 'Shop Pay', which is part of Shopify Payments. By registering, customers do not need to input their address or payment information each time, making it a convenient system that naturally spread among customers." Currently, the usage rate of "Shop Pay" among the company's customers exceeds 30%, contributing to a reduction in cart abandonment through smooth payment processes.
Easily Create Mobile Apps from E-Commerce Sites
With Shopify, created e-commerce sites can be directly converted into mobile apps, reducing the cost of app development while providing a user-friendly environment for yutori's customers. yutori utilizes the service "Appify" provided by Stack Co., Ltd. to turn YZ STORE into an app, enhancing customer convenience and driving sales.
Aoshima explains, "The app handles the same products as YZ STORE, and the backend settings are fundamentally the same. Therefore, there are no significant costs associated with app development. Additionally, many of our customers belong to the app-native generation, so there is a tendency for purchases to be preferred on apps rather than on the web." Furthermore, since app users tend to have higher repeat rates and customer spending, they have implemented initiatives such as allowing customers to purchase new products five minutes earlier on the app than on the web.
Data Integration Between Physical Stores and Online for OMO Realization
As part of its OMO strategy, yutori has introduced the "Omni Hub" app, centralizing member information and sales data from physical stores and online stores.
By utilizing this app, they integrate order information, inventory information, and member information, linking it to CRM to create a cohesive customer experience. This enables smooth inventory management and centralization of customer data between online and offline, contributing to operational efficiency and improved customer satisfaction.
yutori's Next Stage Towards Building a "Youth Empire"
By effectively leveraging Shopify's features, yutori has promoted business growth. Moving forward, they aim to continue their new challenges while utilizing Shopify's flexible platform to achieve further success.
As for future prospects, they have set a grand vision of expanding the number of brands to 70 within five years, aiming to "build a youth empire." "We need to increase our brand count to more than double the current number, but we have established a system for launching brands, so we want to keep increasing them. The YZ STORE will play an important role in our future growth, so we want to focus on branding this mall. We are actively hiring companions who can think about this together," Hamada states.
yutori Marketing Producer Shiori Hamada
Additionally, they are not only expanding in the domestic market but also planning to enter overseas markets, with plans to open a store in Taiwan within this fiscal year. In July 2024, they will conduct a pop-up store in Taiwan as a test marketing initiative. Achieving sales beyond expectations has also heightened expectations for future cross-border e-commerce. Aoshima expresses, "We want to utilize the features provided by Shopify to expand cross-border e-commerce moving forward," and they plan to continue leveraging the Shopify Plus plan as part of their growth strategy overseas.